Cherry Pie Recipe from Kingston, Ontario

A friend first made fresh cherry pie after clipping a recipe from the Kingston Whig-Standard in July, 1975. Once a year, when her local grocery store sells pails of fresh-picked, sour pitted cherries, she gets out this yellowed newspaper clipping. To fill a deep 9" pie plate, you'll need 4 well-packed cups of fresh cherries. My friend uses butter instead of shortening in the pastry; she says to measure 1/4 cup of softened butter plus a dab (an extra teaspoonful of butter.) Her cherry pies are delicious and old-fashioned--there's no red food colouring added to the filling, so it's not as artificially red as the kind you buy.
Pastry for a 9" pie:

• 2-1/4 cups sifted cake and pastry flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 cup shortening (or butter, see above)
• 1/3 cup lard
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (18%)

Cherry Filling:

• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1-1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 4 well-packed cups sour red cherries, washed and pitted
• 1/4 tsp almond flavoring

Glaze:

• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp milk or cream

Pastry: Sift flour, salt and sugar into a bowl. Cut in shortening till it's the texture of cornmeal, then cut in lard until it's the size of small peas. Sprinkle cream over the flour a little at a time and mix with a fork till dough forms a ball. Divide in half, make 2 rounds, and wrap in wax paper. Chill before rolling.
Bottom crust: Roll out one chilled round on a floured surface and use to line a 9 inch pie plate. Filling: Mix the sugar, cornstarch, salt, cherries and flavoring together in a bowl, then turn the filling into your pastry-lined pie plate.
Top crust: Roll out the 2nd round of pastry to make a top crust, cover the cherry filling, crimp the edges of the bottom and top crust, prick a design in the top crust with a fork. To make a lattice top crust, roll out the 2nd round of pastry, cut into long 1/2 inch wide strips, and weave them together. Moisten the edges of the lower crust to attach the strips to the edges; crimp. Optional: brush the top crust with a glaze of 1 tbsp sugar mixed into 1 tbsp milk or cream.

Bake in a preheated 450 degree F oven 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 25 minutes or until juice bubbles up through the top crust. Allow pie to cool well before cutting.